The present invention broadly relates to a new and improved safety apparatus for an externally powered firing weapon or firing weapon system including a weapon barrel and a positively reciprocating or to-and-fro moving breechblock which can be locked in its forwardmost or foremost position.
In its more particular aspects, the present invention relates to a new and improved safety apparatus for an externally powered firing weapon or firing weapon system comprising a weapon barrel and a positively reciprocating or to-and-fro moving breechblock which can be locked in its forwardmost or foremost position with the weapon barrel. The breechblock comprises a breechblock carrier and a breechblock head which are operatively coupled to each other. Furthermore, there is also provided a device for decoupling the breechblock carrier from the breechblock head locked to the weapon barrel, and this device responds to a hangfire condition or an ignition delay of a cartridge.
A safety apparatus of this kind is known, for example, from the commonly assigned European Published Pat. application No. 0,111,240, published June 20, 1984 and the cognate U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,641, granted Nov. 5, 1985. In this known apparatus there are provided coupling means for coupling the breechblock head to the breechblock carrier and which comprise between the breechblock head and the breechblock carrier two latches retainable by a retaining bracket. The device for decoupling the breechblock carrier from the breechblock head comprises a two-armed actuating lever which engages with an actuator mechanism mounted at the weapon housing.
This prior art safety apparatus has the shortcoming that it is relatively complicated in construction. Furthermore, the two part breechblock composed of the breechblock head and the breechblock carrier is relatively heavy and comprises a relatively large number of components. In addition, the device to decouple the breechblock carrier from the breechblock head locked to the weapon barrel is also rather complicated in construction.